The present invention is generally related to an apparatus for use with an electrical outlet to improve electrical device fit. Widely utilized electrical power technology involves a female portion referred to as a socket, having two or more slots (or holes), and a male portion referred to as a plug having protruding blades (or pins). The arrangement of the blades on the plug matches the arrangement of the slots on the socket so that the plug may be inserted into the socket and thus engage the blades with electrical contacts located within an inner portion of the socket. Sockets are designed with such inner positioned contacts to prevent exposure of bare energized contacts for obvious safety reasons.
The North American standard for electrical outlets is 120 volts at a frequency of 60 Hz, and for standard residential use is arranged with two slots in parallel for reception of plugs utilizing two blades in parallel. A third blade, and corresponding third slot, may be positioned below and in between the two parallel blades/slots; this third blade/slot is utilized for grounding and is not included in all standard residential electrical outlets assemblies.
The standard North American electrical outlet arrangement of two parallel blades/slots has a significant drawback in that overtime, the blades can slip out of the slots to the point where the plug either completely or partially falls out of the socket. When the blades fall out of the socket, the electrical connection is lost and the electrical device is temporarily powerless and therefore unusable. This problem can occur for any type of electrically powered device, but tends to occur frequently when the electrical device is a handheld device that is movable by the user during use. For example, when a vacuum cleaner device is being used the user often finds that he or she has accidentally pulled the plug at least partially out of the socket during standard vacuuming activity, which can render the vacuum cleaner useless until the plug is reinserted into the socket. Another common example of this blade-slippage problem is when a smartphone user is attempting to recharge the user's smartphone while simultaneously using the smartphone. In such a situation, the user often accidentally pulls the charging cord plug out of the electrical outlet socket. This occurs frequently because smartphone charging plugs typically only utilize two blade configurations which can easily slip out of socket holes with only minimal force applied by the user.
There is a need for technology to overcome this common electrical plug slippage problem. Many attempts and techniques for solving this problem are known in the prior art, but all such known solutions have major drawbacks in that they are either difficult for a user to use or they are complex and/or expensive apparatus that must be mechanically attached to existing electrical socket assemblies.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,659,248 to Mann et al. discloses a hinge which may be mechanically attached to the faceplate of an electrical socket. The Mann et al. hinge functions to engage the plug of an electrical device so as to prevent the plug from slipping out of the socket. But such a hinge must be mechanically attached to the socket and so is both a cumbersome and expensive solution to the above described plug slippage problem. A similarly complex mechanical solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,396 to Grover. Grover discloses a complex sliding latch plate in combination with springs that make the plug-socket connection tight. The Grover solution is relatively expensive in that it requires manufacture of many interconnected mechanical parts, and thus is not practical for widespread use. Another similarly mechanically complex solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Application No. 2002/0155754 to De'Longhi. De'Longhi discloses a device that utilizes a magnetized connection between electrical device plugs and electrical outlet sockets.
Several other solutions in the prior art involve directly holding the plug in place with apparatus that may be formed of plastic or plastic-like materials. U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,407 to Barbic discloses an electrical outlet safety cover that includes a strip with holes for looping through the electrical device plug's cord and thereby stabilizing the plug within the socket to, among other alleged advantages, keep the plug from slipping out of the socket. It is possible to form this Barbic strip from plastic, but the Barbic disclosure requires several additional components to stabilize the strip itself, making the Barbic solution equally complex and impractical. Furthermore, the Barbic strip stabilizes the plug in a wholly different manner than the present invention (as described herein) because the Barbic strip does not protrude into the slots of the socket, is not U-shaped, and does not include nodules for gripping a faceplate of the socket. Another prior art solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,515 to Mele. The Mele solution involves an elastically expandable tube which is fitted around the plug and the electrical socket in order to secure the plug-socket connection and prevent slippage. The Mele disclosure cannot be used with standard residential wall-mounted (or floor-mounted) electrical outlets because the Mele disclosure requires the socket to be protruding in some way so as to allow the disclosed elastically expandable tube to fit over and around a portion of the socket. Standard sockets, which are flush against a wall or a floor, do not provide such a protruding portion. Furthermore, as with the Barbic solution, the Mele solution does not protrude into the slots of the socket, is not U-shaped, and does not include nodules for gripping a faceplate of the socket.
As disclosed, the prior art solutions solve the above described plug slippage problem in very different ways than the present invention; they are complex, relatively expensive, and impractical. There is, therefore, a need for a simpler apparatus for prevention of plug slippage from standard electrical sockets. The present invention solves this problem in a simple, elegant, and inexpensive way, allowing the present invention to be widely utilized with standard electrical devices and standard electrical outlets.